Ohio Birds: A Photo Collection

Just "click on the thumbnails" for successively larger images--small, medium, and HUGE!

The Stare- American Kestrel

American Kestrel- Falco sparverius

American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, Order FALCONIFORMES - Family FALCONIDAE, Falco sparverius. "Perhaps the most colorful raptor in the world, the American Kestrel is the most common falcon in North America. It is found from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and in towns as well as wild lands." I was teaching coral reef ecology on the island of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles when I found this beauty. (Photo: March 17, 2004, Canon 10D, EF 100- 400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS lens)

Sources of species identification and other amazing info include (1) Cornell Lab of Ornithology--a fantastic site; (2)Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Peterson Field Guide Series, Fifth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company; (3) The National Audubon Society's Sibley Guide to Birds and (4) Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Third Edition, National Geographic, Washington, D.C.